Privacy policy

Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (ABN 716 021 001 49) is a not-for-profit, grower-owned research and development corporation for Australia’s horticulture Industry (“Hort Innovation”, “we” or “us”). Hort Innovation invests more than $100 million in research and development, marketing and trade programs annually.

We believe in protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This privacy policy sets out the way Hort Innovation collects, stores, uses and discloses personal information.

Personal information is “information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable: (a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and (b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not”.

You do not have to provide your personal information to us but, if you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide you with our services or carry out your requests.

You may be able to deal with us without identifying yourself (i.e. anonymously or by using a pseudonym) in certain circumstances, such as when completing surveys. If you wish to do so, please contact us to find out if this is practicable in your circumstances.

The personal information Hort Innovation collects

The personal information we collect and hold depends on the type of interaction you have with us but could include your name, contact details (such as your phone number, address and email address), company name and position, photographs and other digital images (for example video footage from events or digital images from public areas of our office ), fee structures, rates and charges, payment details, payment and performance history, projects involved in, prior dealings with us, affiliations and associations, memberships, shareholdings as they relate to declarations of interests and relationships (if relevant for managing conflicts of interests). We may also collect and hold certain sensitive information (as that term is defined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)) to provide services or assistance to you, such as information about any special attention you may require, your political opinions and/or your membership of a political, professional or trade association.

If you are an employee we will also hold employment records about you (for example salary information, health information, superannuation details, TFN, criminal records, qualifications and areas of expertise), and CCTV footage from some areas of our office.

How Hort Innovation collects personal information

We generally only collect your personal information if you choose to provide your details directly to us, for example in person, over the telephone, by post or email, via any of our websites, by completing online or hard copy application feedback forms or attending any of our trade events. There may be occasions when we collect your personal information from someone else, such as the Department of Agriculture (Levies) and other Government agencies, other Research and Development Corporations, Hort Innovation members, our third party share registry provider, other service providers, Facebook and other social media sites, search engines, and media monitoring and employment agencies.

We also automatically collect certain information when you visit our website. Such information includes your browser type, server address, operating system type, your IP address, how and when you use any of our websites, and previous websites visited. We generally use this information on an anonymous basis and do not use it to personally identify you unless required to do so by law. Where Hort Innovation conducts online voting processes, Hort Innovation may view the IP address or email address of voters to ensure that voting is legitimate. Hort Innovation may therefore, from time to time, need to verify email and IP addresses.

During your communications with us you must not provide us with personal information about any other individual unless you have the express consent of that individual to do so, or if you are their legal representative or guardian. If you do provide us with personal information about another individual, you:

must tell that individual that you will be providing their information to us and that we will handle their information in accordance with this privacy policy;

must provide that individual with a copy of (or refer them to) this privacy policy; and

warrant that you have that individual’s consent (or other legal authority) to provide their information to us.

The purposes for which Hort Innovation collects, holds and uses personal information

We collect, hold and use personal information for the purposes for which it was provided to us (which will normally be obvious at the time Hort Innovation collects it), other related purposes or as permitted or required by law.

Such purposes may include:

responding to your enquiries and providing you with our services;

managing your membership with Hort Innovation;

processing forms or questionnaires you have completed either in hard copy, online, through 3rd party providers or on our website;

processing payments;

considering applications for awards, such as competitions and project funding and providing the same;

to evaluate or respond to a job application that you have submitted;

creating and managing our internal credit rating system for each service provider;

verifying email and IP addresses;

providing you with information about developments in the industry, events and projects that we are involved in (if you opt-in to receive such information);

to carry out obligations arising from contracts entered into with you and to manage our contractual relationship;

to evaluate or respond to a submission, articles or correspondence that you have made or sent;

reporting, evaluation and monitoring;

forecasting future needs of our services and general quality assurance and training purposes; and

any other purposes identified at the time of collecting your information.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which it was initially collected, the purposes listed above, other directly related purposes and purposes to which you otherwise consent.

Direct marketing materials

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about developments in the industry, events and projects that we are involved in, and products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, email or telephone in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. At any time, you may opt-out of receiving communications from us by contacting us (see the contact details below) or by using any opt-out facilities provided in the communications, and we will then ensure that your name is removed from the relevant mailing list.

How Hort Innovation discloses personal information

We do not sell your personal information. However, we may disclose your personal information, if appropriate, for the purposes for which it was initially collected (as noted above), other directly related purposes, purposes which are otherwise authorised by law, or purposes to which you specifically consent.

Examples of entities to which we might disclose your personal information include:

any third parties who manage data or provide services on our behalf (for example our third party IT and infrastructure service providers, our third party share registry provider, advertising agencies, legal advisors and auditors);

government agencies or industry bodies who need to consider your applications for project funding allocations;

relevant authorities if we have reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity or where disclosure is authorised or required by law;

third parties seeking partners, sub-contractors, co-funding applicants or specialists for a project, where to do so is related to the purpose for which you supplied your personal information, or where we have your explicit or implied consent to do so; and

any other entities identified at the time of collecting your information or to which we are legally required to disclose your personal information.

Some of the third parties listed above to whom we may provide or disclose your personal information are located overseas, such as in China, India, the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand. Our contracts with these parties generally include an obligation for them to comply with Australian privacy law, or they are in jurisdictions with privacy protections equivalent to Australian privacy law.

Security of personal information

We take reasonable steps (including any measures required by law) to ensure your personal information is protected from loss, misuse, interference and from unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

However, data protection and security measures are never completely secure and, despite the measures we have put in place, we cannot guarantee the security of your information. You must take care to protect your personal information (for example, by protecting any usernames and passwords). You should also notify us as soon as possible if you become aware of any security breaches. We have a procedure to respond to data breaches, and we will notify any affected individuals, as required under the Privacy Act.

Links to third party websites

Our website may contain links to the websites of other entities. If you click on such links, you will be transferred to the website of these entities. Hort Innovation has no control over, and is not responsible for, the privacy practices of these entities. You should read the privacy policy of these entities to find out how they handle your personal information when you visit their websites.

Accuracy, access and correction

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we collect and hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, we rely on you to advise us of any changes to your personal information to help us maintain accurate, complete and up-to-date information.

We will, on request, provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you unless otherwise required or permitted by law. We will notify you of the basis for any denial of access to your personal information.

How to make a complaint

If you wish to make a complaint about Hort Innovation, in relation to a breach of this privacy policy or the Australian Privacy Principles, you can contact us using the contact details below. You will need to provide us with sufficient details regarding your complaint as well as any supporting evidence and information.

Our Privacy Officer will investigate the issue and determine the steps that we will undertake to resolve your complaint. We will contact you if we require any additional information from you and will notify you in writing of the outcome of the investigation. If you are not satisfied with our determination, you can contact us to discuss your concerns or contact the Australian Privacy Commissioner via www.oaic.gov.au.

Revisions to Hort Innovation’s privacy policy

This privacy policy may be amended from time to time. The date of the most recent revision will appear at the bottom of this policy. If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we will notify you by email or by putting a notice on the home page of our websites.

How to contact Hort Innovation

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy or its implementation, please contact our Privacy Officer at: